As per regulatory filings, Amazon has put in an additional USD 20 Mn into its digital payments entity, Amazon Pay India. Amazon Corporate Holdings Singapore and Amazon.com, Mauritius have infused the new capital.

As per an Amazon India spokesperson:

“Our focus is to make digital payments the most trusted, convenient, and rewarding choice for customers. We continue to explore ways to do this, in partnership with banks, processors, fintech companies, and ecosystem partners. We remain committed to our India business with a long-term perspective to make ecommerce a habit for Indian customers and to invest in the necessary technology and infrastructure to grow the entire ecosystem.”

Former Citi banker Sriraman Jagannathan joined the payments business to spearheaded the launch of the digital wallet in February 2016. It was followed by the acquisition of Noida-based payment gateway EMVANTAGE Payments. The company also applied for a semi-closed wallet license with the RBI in March 2016. In December 2016, the ecommerce giant launched Amazon Pay Balance. It is a payments option similar to how mobile wallets work but limited to Amazon-based transactions.

As per the RBI website, Amazon Online Distribution Services Pvt. Ltd secured the license to operate a prepaid payment instrument (PPI) late last month. This makes it the latest entrant in the country’s booming digital payments space. In June 2017, it launched its sixth Fulfilment Centre (FC) in Mumbai. With this new launch, it now has eight FCs in Maharashtra, with close to 2.5 Mn cubic feet of storage space. .

As a per a recent report by Google and Boston Consulting Group, the digital payments industry in India is projected to reach USD 500 Bn by 2020, contributing 15% to India’s GDP. Amazon Pay India will be in direct competition with Alibaba-backed Paytm. WhatsApp is also expected to launch a P2P payment system in India. Apart from this, the wallet will compete with Flipkart acquired UPI-enabled PhonePe; mobile payment service ‘Truecaller Pay,’ FreeCharge, Mobikwik, among others are the major competitors for Amazon Pay.

About Author

Ruchi is a word-weaver, a painter, an amateur photographer and a poet at heart. The ease with with she can explain the most complex stuff impresses people around her. Being a gemini, she is never content, always looking for new ways to explore her self and the world around. The startup revolution has greatly influenced her and she is using her talent to help budding entrepreneurs find the way forward.